One woman's mission to save credit unions by championing diversity

In March 2022, when Renée Sattiewhite sat on stage during a conference in Washington, D.C., she didn't know who was in the audience — or how much her help meant to that person. 

The woman in the audience had been trying to start a credit union in North Minneapolis, "in what we call Ground Zero for George Floyd and Philando Castile. For years we had been trying to do this, and because of the heart of one person on that stage it is closer to reality, and that would be Renée Sattiewhite," the woman said. "I picked up the phone and called her and explained my journey. Ground Zero for this project is riddled with payday lenders and fringe bankers. There was no cavalry coming."

The audience member was Debra Hurston, the executive director of the Association for Black Economic Power in Minneapolis. She continued: "In addition to the injustice in the policing system, there's a huge, amazingly gaping hole in the financial system for the people of north Minneapolis. I called that lady on the stage. And I told her that my organization with a staff of one — me — needed a credit union. The community needed help. … She had never met me. She said, 'Debra, we're gonna send you some help.' "

And Sattiewhite did just that. 

The Black-led Arise Community Credit Union is set to launch next year due in no small part to Sattiewhite's intervention, according to Hurston. "No cavalry was coming until I called her, and now we have an amazing team of experts behind us," Hurston said. "Thank you, Renée, for everything. You know, we could not have gotten as far as we've gotten without you. I just needed you to know that publicly."

DEI or die

As president and chief executive of the African American Credit Union Coalition — one of the leading trade associations for Black professionals across the industry since its founding in 1999 — Sattiewhite has worked tirelessly to build the organization into what it is today and champion the causes of diversity, equity and inclusion.

In a time when the credit union industry is shrinking due to consolidation, Sattiewhite and the AACUC are working to counter that trend by promoting diversity and bringing in talent through diversity, equity and inclusion leadership training, mentorship, internships, scholarships and other resources for individuals and credit unions.

"People think that DEI is a moment, but for me, it's a movement," she said. "For me, if credit unions do not embrace DEI they will die."

Sattiewhite, who turns 62 in December, is still scoring victories for her industry and for her cause. On the AACUC's behalf, Sattiewhite accepted the 2022 Anchor Award from the National Credit Union Foundation, and Sattiewhite was personally honored in the America's Credit Union Museum exhibit titled "Credit Union Women Making History … HERSTORY," which featured prominent female figures throughout the movement.

The AACUC is "the organization that gets to make sure that people are seen and heard, and I do believe that if we served everybody passionately, we could change the world," she said.

With the killing of George Floyd and the growing awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement demonstrating the importance of the AACUC's mission, Sattiewhite launched the Commitment to Change: Credit Unions Unite Against Racism initiative. The program for members of the coalition offers scholarships that can be used to cover the costs of trainings and other certifications that hone their financial skills.

Sattiewhite remains a devoted champion of diversity and equity in the credit union industry, and is committed to paying forward the opportunities she received early in her career.

Making change

Sattiewhite's entry into the banking world began through a customer service role at City National Bank in Los Angeles on May 23, 1983, when she became a teller trainee. She remained with the bank until January 1990, when Sattiewhite picked up and moved to Atlanta to become an instructor in the continuing education department at Spelman College, one of the few historically Black universities in the U.S.

It wouldn't be long until she returned to the financial industry.

Sattiewhite came across a job listing in the Atlanta Journal Constitution for a training coordinator during her time at Spelman and quickly met with Dave Gibbard, president of the insurance firm Creditor Resources, also in Atlanta, about the position in the company's in-house training department. Concluding eight hours of interviews, she formally joined in November 1992 and became his assistant six months later while retaining her teaching role on a part-time basis.

"He treated me like I was part of senior staff and not like I was a lowly assistant," Sattiewhite said. 

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And Sattiewhite was upfront about her career ambitions. "When he asked me to be his assistant, I asked him about my goal to one day run my own company and he said, 'I need someone to be me when I'm not here,'" she said.

After quitting her teaching role in 1997 and being laid off from Creditor Resources just two years later, Sattiewhite founded an executive coaching firm, Sattiewhite Training Productions.

Her involvement with the AACUC began around 2001, through her connection with one of the organization's founders, Hubert Hoosman Jr. Drawing on her experience as a technical writer, she helped draft a grant application to the National Credit Union Foundation for the AACUC's Reaching Towards the Future internship program. The AACUC received approval and funding soon after.

She simultaneously went on to spearhead the AACUC's internship program as its director, with the goal of placing college-level students into various mainstream credit unions and offering them a taste of a career in finance. To date, the project has successfully enabled more than 400 participants to become full-time credit union employees.

"I believe that internships are still very, very important, but I believe now that our next level is young professionals," Sattiewhite said.

Sattiewhite stepped away from the AACUC in 2005 to continue her professional career and further develop her own firm, occasionally volunteering as a co-chair in the program she helped found. But that hiatus didn't last long. In October 2014, the group's board of directors named her as successor to executive director Lillian Priest, who had been in the role for roughly 10 years before succumbing to an unnamed illness.

Sattiewhite excelled in her role and was appointed as the organization's permanent executive director in March 2015, going on to become the AACUC's president and CEO in 2020.

Her leadership would be put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic as the AACUC and the credit union industry at large struggled with hiring, earnings and other issues. The board gave her what seemed like an impossible task in a time of reduced spending and layoffs across the organization — she had to raise $1 million.

"Up until that point, I think the most they've ever seen come through the organization was $600,000," Sattiewhite said. But she was up to the task. "We closed the books at [just over] $1 million that year, with that number jumping to $1.7 million the following year," Sattiewhite said.

Through the surge of support that the AACUC received in that time, Sattiewhite established a new support tier where organizations and individuals could pledge $100,000 a year for five years and even volunteer their time to help the organization. The chairman circle partnership is an additional option to its pre-existing corporate partner level of $25,000 a year for the same period of time.

Bolstered by this funding, Sattiewhite is expanding the group's internship program and Commitment to Change initiatives for ensuring that the "Black-run and Black-led organization will work in excellence at all times" and to dispel the stereotypes that still serve as obstacles to the Black community, she said.

"When I was 39 years old, these mega executives, CEOs and board chairs poured their support into me, they gave me the spotlight and they let me run with programs," Sattiewhite said.

"One of the things that I love about my job is that I get to do what was done for me when I was a young person."

Daniel Wolfe contributed to this story.